At 03:36 AM 11/13/98 -0800, Adam Crowl wrote:>>Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 09:07:01 -0500 (EST)>>From: Moorad Alexanian <alexanian@UNCWIL.EDU>>>Subject: Re: Genesis and Predictions>>To: Adam Crowl <qraal@hotmail.com>>>Cc: asa@calvin.edu>>>In reply to my fumings as "qraal" Moorad wrote...>>>>I believe that the day we know all about the physical universe, then we >will>>realize that the Genesis account is consistent with our knowledge of >how>>everything came into being. However, the Genesis account is not >sufficient>>to lead to that knowledge.>>>>Moorad>>I agree to a certain extent, but such knowledge lies a long way off. A >real question I have with most "reconstructions" of Genesis 1/2 is the >persistent failure to recognise the cosmology that the writers are >coming from. Take God's first act - the creation of light and the >separation of day from night. To us this makes no sense, that there can >be a day without the Sun, but imagine the naive viewpoint of c. 1500 BC. >To them there is no obvious link between Light and the Sun because they >see a bright blue sky through which the Sun moves, and contrariwise the >night and the Moon. To this view the bright blue sky is the habitat of >the Sun just as much as the water is the home of fishes - a landscape >for an inhabitant. In this world view the Sun, Moon and Stars are still >living creatures, even if they are not gods - just as the great >sea-beasts rule the sea, the "great lights" rule their respective skies.>>Does this translate at all into modern materialist cosmology? No. I very >much doubt that stars are living beings and likewise the Sun. We know >the Moon is just cooling mantle slag blown off the Earth, and not the >ruler of the Night. C.S.Lewis had speculated on angelic counterparts to >the celestial hosts, but whether he wa serious or not is irrelevant - >Newton killed the celestials when "soul" was no longer necessary to >"push" the heavenlies around the sky.>>Or so it seems. Perhaps Genesis is code, but the noise level is pretty >high.>>Adam

Dear Adam,

Sometimes it is best to find what is the least we can get out of Genesis 1/2
rather than what is the most we can extricate from it. The least is that
there is a Creator and that we are all creatures. Of course, this least
amount of knowledge is much more than most people possess.